MusiLLection

America welcomed Dvořák, and the scenes of daily activity inspired him in the "From the New World" Symphony. On December 20, 1892, three months after arriving in the United States, Antonín Dvořák began planning his ninth symphony. He gave the subtitle "From the New World" recognizing the source of his inspiration. He completed the last of the four parts on May 24, 1893, writing with relief in the manuscript "Thank God!". It was the first complete composition in America. "I just wrote in the spirit of American folk songs," Dvořák replied when he was accused of copying the Negro spirituals. Indeed, his melodies are entirely authentic and are reminiscent of the rhythms and vocal style of negro songs rather than trying to imitate the songs themselves. The first performance of the Symphony No. 9 under the direction of Anton Seidl in Carnegie Hall, New York, on December 16, 1893, was extremely successful. The New York Herald newspaper referred to ...

Front of the piano transcription of Bizet's L' Arlésienne . This second suite was created after the death of Georges Bizet by Ernest Guiraud, one of his collaborators. Guiraud used three pieces from Bizet's original, which includes the famous Farandole, but curiously added Menuet from his almost forgotten opera, "The Fair Maid of Perth". It is a wonderful work, particularly beloved by the concert audience, although it does not attribute the drama of rural life of Provence as depicted in the original. Movements : I. Pastorale Pastorale is scenography at its best. The thunderous rhythm of the music, submits the image of the villagers returning from the fields in the midday heat. But there is also lyricism, in the wonderful melody reminiscent of bird chirping and which is introduced just before the pastoral theme is heard again. II. Intermezzo In Intermezzo the main melody is rendered by saxophone and horn, accompanied by the strings. It's music is simple and ...

Like many great composers before him, César Franck earned his living more as a virtuoso performer than as a composer. Most of his works were widely recognized after his death Towards the end of his career César Franck realized that French music had little great work to present for piano and orchestra, and decided to contribute to the change of scenery. In 1884 he experimented using piano and orchestra in his symphonic poem "Les Djinns" (a symphonic poem is a work for an orchestra based on a theme that is not musical). Finally its goal was achieved in 1885 with the synthesis of the Symphonic Variations - a work of timeless quality. Franck's original idea was aimed at a concert-form project, in which, however, the piano would share the musical theme just as much as the orchestra. In his early thoughts he envisioned a form based on Beethoven 's great works, as well as great composers of the Baroque era. What he eventually composed, however, is more reminiscent of imagin...

  Gioachino Rossini This is Gioachino Rossini 's most serious operatic work since William Tell . It is an opera in two acts and it was first presented at Venice's La Fenice Theatre on February 3, 1823. The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis , which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Assyria. The originality of the Overture is that it incorporates music from the opera, which strengthens the bond between the instrumental composition of the beginning and the drama that follows.  The Overture  starts with drum rolls and the music moves from pianissimo (very quiet) to fortissimo (very loud) in less than half a minute. A brief pause leads to a quiet, flowing melody presented by horns and bassoons. The previous fortissimo returns and then repeats the melody of the horn for a second time, but now in the woodwinds accompanied by decorative pizzicatti in harmonic chords of strings. A sudden dramatic chord interrupts and begins the m...

  Costume design for one of Weber Oberon's opera characters. Although the work is rarely performed nowadays, at its premiere in London in 1826, it was a huge success. Oberon Opera   (or The Elf King's Oath) is a 3-act romantic opera and was Carl Maria von Weber 's last. He composed it for the Theatre of London's Covent Garden (not for the current building that houses the opera house) and directed its premiere on April 12, 1826, to the cheers of the audience. Unfortunately, he was very ill and the workload required by the opera accelerated his death in London on 5 June 1826. Oberon's libretto by James Robinson Planché was based on the German poem Oberon by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance "Huon de Bordeaux" (a medieval French tale). However, like Euryanthe , it has never had any real success in its performances, although the introduction is still a much-loved concert work. Some of the opera's characters are the sa...

'The Woodman's Child' painting of Arthur Hughes, expresses wonderfully the dreamy quality of "Dreaming" from Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood". For Robert Schumann , music was almost always a personal expression of contemplation, feelings and poetic contemplation and that is exactly what makes him one of the most important romantic composers. The piano was Schumann's first love and his compositions for this instrument are among the most resistant through the passage of time. Schumann composed "Scenes from Childhood" album, the best-known of all his pianistic circles, in 1838. It consists of 13 "peculiarly small works", as described by the composer, each with its own title, which expresses a specific childhood memory. These works are all simple and charming, but Dreaming ( Träumerei) is the most popular and best known of all.  It is often included in musical collections for solo piano and often the virtuoso performers includ...

A little the weak-mindedness of those who do not want to admit the exceptional, unusual abilities of others, a little his "mephistofelic" appearance, favored the development of the myth that the violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini "Faust" of music wanted. His virtuosity on the violin was truly transcendent, as no one listed collaboration with the devil. Paganini's insurmountable technique had its morphological characteristics and exhibitionism at the time of public interpretation. Thus, the myth was well preserved. All the music centres in Europe enjoyed this theatrical artist, but he was unreal only on stage. In his daily life he was an ordinary man, a kind man, a man of virtues and weaknesses. He not only developed the technique bequeathed to him by the virtuosos violonists of the 18th century, but he developed it unexpectedly by inventing tricks that gave him the right to be called a pioneer. The techniques of "staccato", "pizzicato", ...